India’s wireless base declines by 1.1 mn to 1033.16 mn in May’16

India’s total wireless subscriber base declined from 1034.25 mn in Apr’16 to 1033.16 mn in May’16, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of -0.11% due to Videocon Mobile’s closure of its commercial mobile services and Reliance Communication’s decision to discontinue its CDMA services. Total telephone subscriber base (wireline+wireless) in India declined from 1059.29 mn in Apr’16 to 1058.03 mn in May’16, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of -0.12%.

Videocon , which was operating in MP. Haryana, UP(E), UP(W), Gujarat and Bihar, reported net loss of 5.1 mn subscribers as it has stopped its commercial mobile services. Reliance Comm had net loss of 1.2 mn cutomers in May’16. Market leader Bharti Airtel attracted most number of customers with net additions of 2.1 mn taking its total wireless base to 254.3 mn. Idea Cellular had net additions of 8.5 lakh while state run telecom PSU BSNL had 7.5 lakh net additions. BSNL has been consistently strengthening its position in mobile services with improved sales and impressive performance month on month for the last few months. Vodafone , the second largest mobile operator in the country , reported net additions of 6.8 lakh and as on May’16 its total base stood at 198.6 mn.

Broadband segment increased by 5.74% over last month as its base grew from 151.09 mn in Apr’16 to 159.76 mn in May’16. Healthy growth rate in wireless broadband has been the key driver to increase broadband penetration across the country. It grew by 6.42% over last month while wired broadband increased by .63%. broadband subscribers at the end of May’16. Top five service providers constituted 84.32% market share of the total broadband subscribers .These service providers were Bharti Airtel (40.80 million), Vodafone (31.55 million), Idea Cellular (25.70 million), BSNL (20.76 million) and Reliance Communications Group (15.91 million).